


What do you say to a stranger in pain?

by Elenca



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Gen, Introspection, M/M, Pre-Relationship, Sochi GPF Final, crush without recognizing that it's a crush
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-25
Updated: 2017-02-25
Packaged: 2018-09-26 19:04:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 902
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9916808
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elenca/pseuds/Elenca
Summary: Viktor Nikiforov watches Yuuri Katsuki skate during the Sochi Grand Prix Final and tries to figure out how he can help him once again find the beautiful performances he'd seen from the younger skater just weeks prior.OrViktor has a big gay crush and doesn't realize it quite yet, but he's bad at people.





	

**Author's Note:**

> (Blah blah Slavic K sounds, etc etc I grew up self-learning Japanese as a child with Hepburn romanization and find it more natural than Kunrei-shiki for non-natives to learn how to say words. Ergo, "Viktor" and "Yuuri".
> 
> Huge supporter of everyone doing what feels most right, whatever versions they use.)
> 
>  
> 
> Kubo-sensei revealing that Viktor knew who Yuuri was, and could tell from his skating that he was a fan, absolutely killed me. This was the result.

Viktor couldn't take his eyes off the ice.

He continued stretching, of course, keeping his body warm for his own upcoming turn lest Yakov lecture him, but his attention was focused on the figure in blue and black pushing up to their feet again following a nasty fall. He ached for him.

Yuuri Katsuki.

Viktor winced when he hit the ice—with his hip again instead of the skate blade. The recovery and return to his program wasn't perfect, but after a fall that bad, who would be? Further still though, something was _wrong_. After so many years on the ice, Viktor knew a thing or two about competition and the jitters that could come with it, how easily a skater could implode under the pressure. It had been years since he'd even so much as brushed with them firsthand, but he'd seen it time and again, year after year and event after event. He knew what it looked like.

It wasn't this.

This was something else all together, something that stuck in his chest like poisonous barbs and made Viktor long to scoop up his competitor into his arms and protect him from whatever brought this on.

This wasn't the Katsuki from earlier in the Grand Prix Series, wasn't even the Katsuki he'd watched struggle through yesterday and through his surreptitious peeks at his practice the day before. This was someone stuck in a tailspin, crashing out of control and splintering into fragments across the ice with each new mistake. Katsuki was like a marionette with his strings cut now, too heavy to move but fighting to do so anyway.

Viktor remembered how Katsuki could move— _had_ moved. If he were honest with himself, he'd never be able to forget.

Katsuki moved like a dancer.

No.

Katsuki moved like Viktor—no, _better_ , more alluring. More... _more_.

He was fluid and graceful and enchanting, taking familiar technical elements and motions Viktor had seen in his own practice videos for years and owning them with his heart and body in a way even Viktor himself couldn't quite capture. He'd only gotten to see him on screen, the newcomer had been assigned different competitions from him, but even then it had shown through, had grabbed Viktor and refused to let him go. He'd been as enraptured seeing Katsuki on the broadcasts weeks ago as he was now, as unable to look away for even a second, but it was in delight and awe, then.

It had been flattering to recognize the core of inspiration from himself buried beneath the heartstopping beauty Katsuki had shone with as he dove into a complicated step sequence—he'd barely registered the announcers saying he was known for them; who wouldn't be, when they looked like that? He'd never seen anyone who could move like that, and recognizing the proof that he was a fan... it had been...

Humbling.

Viktor knew he was talented, had scores of medals and more money than he knew what to do with from endorsements as a testament to his skills, but Katsuki... Katsuki was like the music himself brought to life, one with his performances beyond what matching a perfect combination jump to a cue in a composition or a flawless spin could ever achieve on its own. He felt his skating in a way few others did and invited the audience to do so alongside him—brought them in even if they hadn't realized it was happening, if the way young Yuri Plisetsky had stared at the screen was any indication. He was simply magical.

And that made this collapse before the world all the more heartbreaking.

Viktor didn't know what could have happened, but he wanted... he wanted to do _something_. Someone so talented, so amazing, so fluid and fast and agile and beautiful... someone who could make Viktor—make _anyone_ —feel so much with their performances, they deserved better than this. They deserved a hand up, a gentle touch helping them piece the broken shards back together into something that made sense again.

Katsuki's coach, Cialdini, was already waiting by the Kiss and Cry to comfort his skater, but even still, Viktor couldn't shake the desire—need—to try and do something himself. Katsuki called to him like a siren, and he wanted desperately to help the Japanese skater sing and spin tales of wonder with his body once again. He'd give anything to help him flourish, to bring that spark of life that was missing now back to him.

They'd never spoken before though, weren't friendly rivals like he and Christophe or even just a familiar face from the shaking world that he'd crossed paths with time and again like Cialdini. What do you say to a stranger in pain?

He didn't even know what to say to a friend in pain, truthfully; Viktor was far better with actions than words. Not that he had many friends, either. Just Yakov and rinkmates, Makkachin, and fans.

Fans!

Viktor smiled, hopeful for the first time since Katsuki had taken to the ice tonight. He knew how to talk to fans! It would be the perfect opener, break the ice with a chance for a quick photo, and then... and then...

Hm.

Well, he'd figure out something from there, once they were actually talking. It might not be a full plan, but it was a start; that would be enough for now.

**Author's Note:**

> Many thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed this small return to writing after a fairly long hiatus. Feel free to drop me a line about the boys or the show on Tumblr: **[kkelenca](http://kkelenca.tumblr.com)** or to check out my [Yuri!!! on Ice art](http://elencaart.tumblr.com/tagged/yoi) at my artblog: **[elencaart](http://elencaart.tumblr.com)**. (Warning: contains both SFW and NSFW art)


End file.
